" Make A Run For It " November 18, 2022

[RichA2]

I submitted 21K, not even seeing the route to 5K. The chatter here, plus the too-simple mechanism of counting one letter to find the solution, led to serious doubt. But I didn’t see that each themer had 5 Ks, and so didn’t get to the right answer.

[JoeS]

I am also in “Team Half Marathon” for the simple reason that you never see the term 5k spelled out as “five k.” Races are generally the numerical digit followed by whatever length is being measured (k or mi). While the 5k is the most common race distance that is run, the marathon and half marathon are the most common that are only known by their word title.

Oh well, I will begrudgingly take the L this week.

Concur. I don't know how many t-shirts I have collected that have "5 K" printed on them, never "Five-K". Why isn't 5 K the answer?

[pjc]

I'm in the Half Marathon club. We should make our own mug for a half-marathoner this week!

[Deb F]

Phew! Thank goodness this race is over. This morning, I spell relief with 5 K's....

So, I was torn. Like others, I thought 5K was the obvious answer. Too obvious? We usually have to work much harder than that--though the grid was no easy endeavor! At the last minute, I chose Half-Marathon, thereby justifying the usual extra step. Sigh. Should have stuck with my better angels--and Don!!!

Have a great week, Muggles.

[DBMiller]

So on thursday, I was at my eye doctor appointment, and missed the drama with the puzzle being posted late. I got home after dinner, and immediately went to do the puzzle.

After the second long answer came up I figured the answer had to do with foot races and measurements in kilometers, but I wasn't sure what the answer would be. We've now had two entries with 5Ks, and there appears to be two more long entries that will be the same but I'm staring at an extra K in 21A.

So I decide to finish the puzzle to be sure there aren't any other extra K's lying around. Sure enough, there's only the four theme answers each with 5Ks and that one straggler.

It's not like Matt to leave that K in NECK at 21A. Why not change 6A to NAPE and 21A to NEAT. you get valid downs (NONE, APIA, PACT and ELK) and get rid of that extra K?

So I look up 20K and there is such a race. I've never done the mgwcc's, so I don't distinguish between a week one or a week whatever on the wsj puzzles. But I did think about 5k as a possible answer, and wondered, was there any clue in the puzzle to say yay or nay on a 5K? Well, five down certainly says I should not even consider 5K.

We are coming up on Thanksgiving, and many towns do a Turkey trot. But some of those are 5k, some are 10k, some are half marathons. So that's no help.

So I think the extra K is relevant, and the answer is either 21K, or more likely HALF MARATHON.

Later in the weekend, I think about how if you counted both directions across and down that you would end up with 42k which is about the length of a regular Marathon. So now after I submitted half marathon I'm wondering if the answer is full Marathon. Wait a minute it's actually a little more than 42k but not quite 43k. Yet 43 down says yay? So now I'm really wondering if it is Marathon.

Oh, by the way, I did count the K's in all the clues as well. I think there were six in the across clues and nine in the downs, so that obviously didn't help. Could you imagine what would have happened if there were 21 K's in the clues? Half in each the clues and the grid? That would have been quite the conundrum. Now if there had been five k's in each of the across and down clues, what would I have done?

[lbray53]

All of the "K's" are used twice so one COULD make an argument for there being 42 "K's" involved in the words in the grid. Let's just go the distance and add MARATHON to the list of possible answers.

Seriously, I do think that the pesky 21st "K" is hard to explain away. I particularly like the comment on Crossword Fiend that the 21st "K" was in entry 21A as a potential indicator.

This has been an interesting three days.

[MaineMarge]

Like @DBMiller, I counted all the Ks in the clues as well. If this had been a Mike puzzle, he would have helped us out there.

[eagle1279]

I am also in “Team Half Marathon” for the simple reason that you never see the term 5k spelled out as “five k.” Races are generally the numerical digit followed by whatever length is being measured (k or mi). While the 5k is the most common race distance that is run, the marathon and half marathon are the most common that are only known by their word title.

Oh well, I will begrudgingly take the L this week.

Concur. I don't know how many t-shirts I have collected that have "5 K" printed on them, never "Five-K". Why isn't 5 K the answer?

I submitted "5K" which presumably will be acceptable, I'll let you know when I get the mug notice.

[Sleepy]

Usually Gaffney/Shenk never allow so much ambiguity in a puzzle. I’m nearly always certain when I solve their metas. This time, I figured 50/50 chance because I, like many, went with the more difficult “half marathon” after finding the 21st K in “neck”. I’ve never heard of half marathons called 21K (as some have noted), but Mr Google has, and so I went with it. I guess the mug is not the important thing; it’s knowing that I had both the correct answers!

[HunterX]

Never even thought of other answers besides 5K. (And yes, I submitted it in its usual form, “5K.”) While I understand the other answers people came up with, “5K” is just so much more common.

But, more importantly, imagine if Matt intended “4 x 5K Relay” or “Half Marathon.” Why on earth would he construct it with themed answers where each and every one contain 5 K’s? He’d just be asking for people to complain, “They all have 5 K’s! It’s the most popular form of footrace there is!” He’d have to find ways to specifically avoid having themed answers with 5 K’s.

Took a photo of this guy here in Africa. He would win any 5K against mere humans:

[hcbirker]

Never even thought of other answers besides 5K. (And yes, I submitted it in its usual form, “5K.”) While I understand the other answers people came up with, “5K” is just so much more common.

But, more importantly, imagine if Matt intended “4 x 5K Relay” or “Half Marathon.” Why on earth would he construct it with themed answers where each and every one contain 5 K’s? He’d just be asking for people to complain, “They all have 5 K’s! It’s the most popular form of footrace there is!” He’d have to find ways to specifically avoid having themed answers with 5 K’s.

Took a photo of this guy here in Africa. He would win any 5K against mere humans:

C592B7DD-D936-44FF-A010-3046789E9779.jpeg

I believe that's a Mountain Bongo! Good pic!

[Steve_S]

Well, I was elated to find the 5K so quickly, never chased down any other possibilities even thought 5K seemed too easy. Grabbed the low hanging fruit and now have really poor odds of scoring a mug! The half marathon is elegant, maybe better solution, and should get credit if drawn!
Steve

[Inca]

At first I thought 5K because, hey, 5 Ks in each long answer is quite unique and unusual. But seeing the ONE and ONLY ONE extra K in the puzzle, I knew that had to be deliberate and so I felt it should factor into the solution. Obviously, the WSJ has spoken with their published solution to the puzzle. I'm OK with whatever they decide, but I admit that I was surprised

[Gman]

IMO, the answer is HALF MARATHON. Anyone who has run a MARATHON knows its 42K, and therefore 21K is a HALF MARATHON. Otherwise the answer could have been a 5-K RELAY (4x5k). This one goes beyond being PAGEANTED.

[sphorning]

I went with half marathon, but was looking for something that could be the 0.0975 or 0.1 that was missing from the 21 K's.

[Texcellent]

I submitted “5K” instead of “FIVE-K.” Any idea how WSJ will rule on that?

[Grover]

I can't leave this behind without adding my vote for half marathon. Throwing in that one extra K was just too meaningful to be ignored.

[pjc]

Kind of curious - have the long-timers here ever seen another WSJ meta where the answer was basically in the grid four (or more) different times? I haven't been here THAT long, but don't remember seeing that particular technique before.

As we know, usually the idea is to COMBINE things across multiple answers/clues to get the AHA moment (like the 21K/HALFMARATHON/RELAY crowds did). I don't ever recall the meta being all contained in one answer - and REPEATED a few times across other answers.

[Wendy Walker]

I submitted “5K” instead of “FIVE-K.” Any idea how WSJ will rule on that?

You'll be in the running! That is how I submitted, too.

[Richard]

Well, I went with a 4 X 5K Relay. The Zoomers ( rightly, it seems) disdained my answer, but I figured if I happened to be right, my mug-chances were pretty good!

I think this is a better answer than just 5K.